Battle With Fire by K.F. Breene

Twenty-One

Magic sangthrough my blood and crackled through my heavy limbs. Desperate cold crowded every inch of my being, warning me that death was right around the corner. I had ignored the signs, trying to struggle on, and I’d screwed myself. Whoops.

Light blossomed all around us, filling the burnt-orange sky. Glowing orbs, it seemed like, sifting down from above.

“Please, I’d like to see Darius,” I said, my voice not much more than a whisper. “I need to say goodbye.”

I swore I’d already asked that. I didn’t think my dad would deny my last wish, would he?

“Hold on,” Lucifer said, looking upward. “They’re coming.”

I meant to ask who, but my head was unbearably heavy.

Not to rain on your parade, I thought, since it was so much easier than talking, but I don’t have long. I screwed up with that wound.

“I know. Shh,” he said, and the glowing orbs grew brighter and brighter, nearly hurting my eyes. Sound diminished until I could only hear Lucifer breathing. I’d already stopped. It took too much effort.

One of the orbs grew and grew as it came nearer. Only then did I realize it wasn’t an orb at all, but a person with snow-white wings beating at the air.

I frowned and let my head loll that way, blinking against the ethereal glow emanating from the man’s dewy-soft skin.

You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought. Is that an angel? Like, for real? I’ve heard them talked about, obviously, but a part of me didn’t believe it.

“They spawned those horrific stories for the humans, yes,” Lucifer said, his voice filled with annoyance and disdain.

“Lucifer,” the being said, but not with his mouth. Also not in my head. It was very confusing. He smiled at me, a serene sort of expression that annoyed me for reasons I couldn’t really understand. His face was the image of loveliness, as perfect as Vlad’s but not obnoxiously so. His disposition was as polite and graceful as Romulus’s, but in a more pleasing way.

“Michael,” Lucifer said. “Thanks for coming.” He didn’t sound all that grateful. More like spiteful. They clearly didn’t have a great relationship.

Michael’s smile stayed in place, and he bent his head a little while spreading out his hands. He wore a flowing shirt and pants so wide they almost looked like a skirt, obviously not a fan of color, since everything was the same shade of cream.

“I was not expecting to hear from you,” Michael said without speaking. “The last time I saw you, you were so adamant that we’d have no more interaction. When was that?” He tapped his chin in thought.

“You paid me a visit after your people spared and ruined the druid,” Lucifer supplied.

“Ruined?” Michael’s beautiful face turned quizzical. “Ah, with our magic, you mean. You detest it.”

“Your magic. I remade mine.”

“Yes, of course. How could I forget.”

He’d clearly not forgotten, judging by his mocking tone.

“Your people altered the druid’s magic,” Lucifer said. “In their heavy-handedness, they disguised his ancestral magic, dooming him to walk the earth alone. You wouldn’t know this, of course, because you abandoned him.” Lucifer tsked. “Very bad form, dooming your favorites.”

A lovely frown pulled at Michael’s features.

“That’s not why I call you, though,” Lucifer said. “Some things are more important than my hatred of you.” He looked down at me. “She is dying. She’s in need of healing.”

Michael looked down on me with compassion and pity. “She has your magic, does she not? I cannot heal the likes of what you have become. A disastrous, disgusting sort of monster.”

“Has it been so long that you’ve forgotten what your heritage feels like in the veins of mortals?” Lucifer asked, and I thought that was rich coming from him. He apparently hadn’t recognized my mother’s heritage, or he never would have taken up with her. “And I am the black sheep? At least I pay attention to a world other than my own.”

Again the lovely frown, this glowing fellow very slow on the uptake.

“Godly magic,” I whispered, too tired to put any oomph behind my words. The only good news was that time seemed to have stopped. That, or everyone below had gone totally still, and they were all looking on like a very polite audience. Given Lucifer’s feelings regarding angels, I didn’t think that was likely behavior for the demons, at least.

“Her mother is of your line,” Lucifer said. “Well…” He paused. “Hopefully not yours. I’d hate to think there was a smug dick somewhere in her past.”

“Such colorful language you have accrued.” Michael pursed his lips and bent a little more, sniffing as though smelling me. He peeled back one of my eyelids, studying me with gorgeous, deep blue eyes. “Ah. It is true. How interesting.” His smile stretched wide, his gaze returning to Lucifer. “You sought out a woman with magic from your past and married it with what you are now. How do you find the result? Better than the previous, I should think, if you are asking for my aid.”

“Not your aid specifically,” Lucifer said. “I would’ve given all the gold in my kingdom to keep you from coming.”

“And yet all the gold in your kingdom wouldn’t have been enough to save your daughter.”

Smug dick was right. This guy might appear lovely and virtuous, what with the cream and gold and flawlessness, but his arrogance was pretty extreme.

“I didn’t know what Amorette was,” Lucifer admitted.

“Ah, but part of you must’ve. It drew you in, I would wager.” Now Michael’s smile was triumphant.

“Can you guys do this later?” I asked, letting my heavy lids fall again.

“Why should I do this for her?” Michael asked.

Not much for doing things out of the goodness of your heart, huh? I thought. Your image is obviously a false advertisement.

“She seems to have your wit. How truly unfortunate,” the angel murmured, clearly also able to hear thoughts. I’d figured as much.

“She took a wound standing against me,” Lucifer said. “Surely that is worth your good humor.”

“Is that all? Even your friends want to do that more often than not.”

Lucifer’s arms tensed. “Unlike me, she has worthy intentions. She was tortured at the hands of the elves, badly mistreated, and even still, she showed up here, leading a party of loyal friends, to protect the creatures of the Realm from being overtaken by us. As she lay in my arms, waiting to die, she asked that I help the elves rebuild a more fair and just leadership in the Realm so the worlds would exist in balance, something you seem to have forgotten was important when you shut yourself away and turned your back on the humans who worship your kind. She is attempting to sacrifice herself for the greater good, Michael. Surely that is her mother’s magic talking, not mine. She is worthy of your healing touch, as much as it pains me to admit. She is a child—my child. I must ask this of you.”

Michael paused for what felt like ages. A cool hand landed on my forehead, blaring light behind my eyes.

“I see you are speaking the truth,” he finally said to Lucifer. “I see the blackness of her soul and the purity of her heart. How intriguing.”

That sounds like a great compliment,I thought, and would’ve smiled if it hadn’t required so much effort. At least the pain in my leg was gone. Ordinarily that would be bad, meaning I was beyond feeling pain, but with this clown dragging things out, it was nice to have a break from that intense pounding.

“She has a friend graced with our magic,” Michael went on.

“Your magic,” Lucifer corrected him.

“Two mages, it seems. Connected.” Michael turned to look below. “And Cahal Druer is her ally.” He smiled. “I have never met him in person, but I’ve heard such great things. I should like to meet him. Sometimes the ladies can make an average man sound great—”

“Just in comparison to you,” Lucifer muttered.

“—solely because of his appearance. I wonder if his soul matches the accounts I have heard.”

“You wish to see the handiwork of your brethren? Fantastic. You can witness the haunting sorrow behind his eyes,” Lucifer taunted him. “Regardless, that druid has taken a liking to her. He protects her. How much damned proof do you need that she is worthy?”

“Damned, yes.” Michael studied Lucifer’s face and then his body, black as night and demonic in appearance, his flying form. “It seems you have damned her and are looking to us for her salvation, correct?”

I felt Lucifer tighten again. “Whatever sucks your cock, Michael, sure.”

“Good heavens,” Michael said, and I did grin this time. If he’d had some pearls, he’d be clutching them.

Michael looked down at me again, his ethereal glow starting to stress out my eyes. “Release her,” he said, holding up a palm.

Lucifer did so, pulling his arms away and stepping back. Although I didn’t sink or fall through the air, I reached for him in a sudden, inexplicable gush of anxiety. I hadn’t realized it, but while on the brink of a death that I had not seen coming (my bad), he’d been my security blanket. My comfort. I hadn’t been afraid when in his protection.

On my own now, hovering in the air in front of a creature I did not know, I felt vulnerable and exposed.

“Why should you live?” Michael asked me.

“That’s not for me to answer,” I replied. “I don’t make the rules regarding life and death.”

His brow furrowed. He clearly had not expected that reply. “Would you like to live?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

I sighed and tried to get a view of the fields below me. My body tilted up to a somewhat standing position, although it was not controlled by me.

My impression earlier had been spot-on. Everything below us was frozen, as though someone had flipped a switch, turning off time. Angels floated above the highest of the fliers, looking down at the battlefield. Each of them had a sheen or an ethereal glow of varying brightness, the strength of which probably had something to do with their power.

Surprise flickered through me. Unicorns mostly surrounded the shifters, mages, and fae, not crowding them but keeping the demons or other creatures from getting to them. They were also keeping my people from getting out, cutting them off from the battle. The demons on Lucifer’s side didn’t push or look like they were trying to get through the line. They were instead going around them on both sides, pouring into the elves’ forces, able to do so because of the small force we’d brought. We’d created an impediment to keep them from directly attacking.

My vision magnified as my gaze shifted to those within the unicorn barrier—some effect of magic, obviously, still not controlled by me.

I could just make out a collection of mages, Dizzy and Callie among them, their canvas satchels thrown open and their hands reaching in. They were ready to fight but unable or unwilling to harm the unicorns. Roger and Steve were within the protective barrier as well, trying to push through it to get to the action on the elf side. They’d clearly realized the demons weren’t a threat to them specifically, and the battle had moved beyond them. Roger wasn’t one to give up a fight when he was needed.

“You’d planned to protect my people all along,” I whispered to Lucifer, finding Penny, Emery, Darius, and Cahal where I’d left them, each paused mid-action. They’d continued the fight, pushing me to safety but not trying to follow. “Well…some of them.”

“All of them,” Lucifer said, following my gaze. “I’d planned to protect you all. The unicorns volunteered to push you out of the fight. They did want a crack at the elves, but they decided protecting your people in their time of need was more important.”

A host of vampires, led by Vlad, had worked around to the elves and were closing in on them. Dragons hovered overhead, frozen as they looked down, some with fire streaming out of their mouths onto the cowering elves and creatures below. Demons pushed in from all sides, massed more in some areas than others. Various creatures dotted the landscape, in the process of fleeing. They did not plan to stay until the bitter end, or to give their lives for abandoning a cause that was not their own. With their intolerant leadership, the elves had sunk themselves. They’d never stood a chance. We hadn’t made any difference, and nor could we have. My group had been a bunch of cowboys trying to do the right thing regardless of the odds, and in the face of logic.

Every one of us would do it again, though. We’d hoped to find a better solution for everyone, one that didn’t cost so many lives, one that allowed the people of the Realm to continue ruling themselves. Maybe one day someone would be strong enough to make that happen.

“I don’t really care if you save me,” I said, suddenly tired. “I’ve only ever had a half-life, anyway. Only worried about myself. That’s not really someone of moral fiber. If you’re going to expend any effort, help the people down there. Help the people of the Realm. They’ve been in the shadow of tyrants for a long time, it seems like. Help them get set up for a better life, and please save the people who fought beside me down there. Take my life for theirs, if you have to, I don’t care, but make sure they live. And flip Penny off as you do it. She’ll be so pissed I got to be the hero again.”

“I know what you want for yourself and these worlds,” Michael said, his not-voice echoing through my brain. “I see it clearly.”

“First, it’s rude to go digging around someone’s head without asking. Second, if you were going to do that, why bother asking?” I closed my eyes and leaned back. “You’re exhausting.”

“Like father, like daughter, it would seem,” Michael murmured. “I am thankful you were born in the Brink so we didn’t have a repeat of what happened with Lucifer.”

I didn’t know what that meant, so I didn’t bother replying.

“You wish to live in the Brink still,” Michael said. “Is that world to your liking, then? Unlike the Realm, it needs no improvement?”

Lucifer huffed out a laugh but didn’t comment.

I had to agree with Lucifer. “It’s my home. It’s the home of my mother. It means something to me. Improvement, though? Yeah. I’ll say. Non-magical humans are running amok. It’s an utter shitshow at the moment.”

“I’d be happy to step in,” Lucifer said, and I could tell he was taunting Michael again. “Though I’m not sure what more I could do. They are already well versed in sex, war, hate, violence—”

“Yes, yes.” Michael held up a hand, studying me but talking to my father. “I take your point. You are right, if I must admit it. We have been gone for too long. It is time we assert ourselves into their short little lives and see what can be done. Maybe strip away all that…color you seem to allow your subjects.” His eyes cut to Lucifer, who returned the look with a wolfish grin.

“Just leave New Orleans alone,” I said. “We like color. The louder the better.”

Michael lifted his hand, and I rotated in the air, my eyes suddenly level with his sparkling baby blues.

“I will forget, for the moment, who your father is,” Michael said, his gaze sharp. “You are not correct—I can see that you have lived more than a half-life, for most of it. You had a full heart when your mother lived. And a full heart with your vampire and your mage friends and your home within the…loud, colorful place you love so dearly. It was only in those dark years after you lost her that you wandered, and that, I think, is understandable. Now, here you are, thinking of others above yourself. Desiring peace and balance not only for yourself but for all the worlds. You are in tune with goodness, Miss Reagan Somerset, even if you do not always display it. The balance of your mother and your father has done you well, though it partially pains me to admit it. Your father is intolerable.” He paused for a moment. “I will help. You desire someone stronger to keep your father in his lane. It is a job I will happily take up.”

“That’s not what she was asking,” Lucifer drawled.

Michael’s smile was slight. “Rest assured, Reagan. When you awake, all will be right. Thank you for the part you have played. We will do our due diligence from here on out.”

I wasn’t sure if I’d helped or hurt. But it was clear they wouldn’t be able to push too much, since Lucifer would be here to push back.

My lids slid shut—still not my doing—and blackness overcame me.